Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley and Emma Watson as as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. (Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)

Laurie Devore, author of How to Break a Boy

Part of me wanted to come up with a really deep, unexpected answer for this, but the more I thought on it, the more I knew I had to talk about the romantic relationship that laid the foundation for my entire writing career. From a young age, all I ever wanted in fiction was for Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter series to get together. I loved the bickering between the two characters, their loyalty to their best friend, and the fact that they were so richly drawn — I understood their strengths and their flaws both as individuals and together. I spent 10 years obsessing over how they would finally end up together (and you know, how Voldemort would be defeated and all that), and it ended up being totally worth the wait!

Rachel Cohn, author of Kill All Happies

Nick & Nora Charles from the Thin Man movies, of course. (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist exists because of them.) I love their warm camaraderie and wit, and how much they genuinely seem to delight in each other’s company.

Rhys Ford, author of Hanging the Stars

Hyacinth Hippo and Ben Ali Gator from Fantasia. I know it might seem weird, but they were my first awareness of true love and romance as a kid. Literally star-crossed lovers representing day and night. And so in love.

Melissa Landers, author of Starfall

My answer to this question is always the same: Jamie and Claire Fraser from the Outlander books. I love the way they age together throughout the series and continue to grow as a couple.

Caitriona Balfe as Claire and Sam Heughan as Jamie in Outlander. (Photo courtesy of Starz)

Calla Devlin, author of Tell Me Something Real

Henry and Clare from The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I love how these two characters are meant to be together, regardless of age and time. Such a hauntingly beautiful love story.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. What they have … it’s just magical. #truelovebro

Lilliam Rivera, author of The Education of Margot Sanchez

Kar-Wai Wong’s film In the Mood for Love has the most romantic film couple ever. Actors Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung play neighbors who find out that their respective spouses are having a marital affair. The film is beautifully shot and you really believe the intensity to their growing attraction.

Charlie Cochet, author of Thick & Thin

I’m a big movie buff, so it’s hard to choose just one. Anything with Cary Grant is always a favorite, but for now, I’m going to say The Princess Bride. I absolutely love it. It’s romantic, funny, sweet, swashbuckling fun. I never get tired of watching it.

Robin Wright and Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride. (Photo: 20th Century Fox, The Kobal Collection)

Alexandra Sirowy, author of The Telling

I think love is so much more poignant and heart-breaking when it’s set against the backdrop of suspense in thrillers or revolution in fantasies. I just read Megan Miranda’s All the Missing Girls and Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Mist and Fury, and both these ladies know how to make hearts swell. Books like this feed my own addiction with including romantic plot-lines in my thrillers.

Jennifer Park, author of The Shadows We Know by Heart

Favorite romantic book? About once a year I reread Lynn Kurland’s Stardust of Yesterday because I just adore Kendrick de Piaget. And if I need a quick escape, Ever After is my go-to movie for romance.

Emma Chastain, author of Confessions of a High School Disaster

When Harry Met Sally, which is sensible about love, and romantic about New York City.

Peternelle van Arsdale, author of The Beast Is an Animal

The most romantic situations are often the most ephemeral. Of all the fleeting romances that have broken my heart, the one that rests most deeply in my chest is that of Lyra and Will from the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, which begins with The Golden Compass. That these two young people meet is not only unlikely — it’s against the laws of nature. And yet they do. The only catch? To remain together would kill one of them. So every year, they meet on the same bench in their opposite worlds, knowing that the other is there — untouchable.

Princess Leia and Han Solo (in Empire Strikes Back, particularly) or Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. I adore the enemies-to-lovers trope. Not that it was a trope when Austen wrote it! 🙂

Jillian Blake, author of Antisocial

I’ll never forget Lyra Belacqua telling Will Parry that her very atoms will find his atoms scattered in the next life in Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials. The love story between two young kids — accidental heroes from two different worlds (literally) — is so beautiful and heartbreaking, not many compare. Pullman’s story is epic and fantastic, but Lyra and Will transcend the adventure, pure and true soul mates.

Brittany Cavallaro, author of The Last of August

I’ll always have a soft spot for Benedick and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing.

Shaun David Hutchinson, author of At the Edge of the Universe

If I have to pick just one, then it would have to be Count Laszlo de Almásy and Katharine Clifton from The English Patient (both the book and the movie). I’m a sucker for a forbidden, tortured romance.

J.E. Birk, author of Dating Ryan Alback

Asking me to name my favorite romantic book, movie or couple is kind of like asking Rachael Ray to pick a favorite food … there are waaay too many. Here are just a few of my romantic faves: Favorite romance novel, The Unforgiving Minute by Sarah Granger; favorite love story in a non-romance novel: The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst; Favorite canon couple: Rhian, Savannah and Garrick from Samantha Wayland’s Hat Trick series.

Ellen Hopkins, author of The You I’ve Never Known

Edward Scissorhands because, despite the impossibility of the situation, Edward and Kim do their best to defy the odds and even if they can’t succeed in that, they make memories to last a lifetime. And who wouldn’t want Johnny Depp to carve an ice angel for her?

Jessie Potts, also known as BookTaster, adores books in all forms. She’s fascinated by the book process and works in the submissions department at Dreamspinner Press, you can follow her on Twitter (@BookTaster).

Jessie Potts

Jessie Potts adores books in all forms. She loves steamy romances, leggings and mermaid hair. She’s an acquisitions editor at Dreamspinner Press (she never writes recs for HEA for books published by Dreamspinner). You can follow her on Twitter (@BookTaster) or Instagram (@jessiespointe).